What a day our scout troop had at the 2023 Blue Elk District Klondike Derby. Being a first time scout at this event I didn’t know what to expect.

We met at the church at 7:00 AM and loaded our sleds and we were off to the Klondike Derby. When we arrived Mr. Howell got off the bus and checked the two patrols in. We were given our assigned events and we were off. I am so glad we were in the front of the check-in line. At the check-in pont they had us turn our sleds upside down to see if anything would fall off. My patrol made it through the first event with no problems.

Then we were off and running and when I say running I mean running as we had 13 events to complete before 4:00 PM. The events were as follows:Archery, Tomahawk Throw, Spider Hole, B-B Guns, Fire Building, Cooking, Bear Bag, Knots, First Aid, Splint, Stretcher, Lashings, Survival Shelter and Compass Course. These events were very challenging for our patrol as we were not working as a team and we had forgotten a lot of our scouting skills. We now understand why Mr. Howell stresses to learn so well that you can teach another scout.

When we got back to the church we unload our sleds back to the scout room. Mr, Howell asked everyone to be be seated and he asked each of us what we thought we needed to improve on and most of the scouts said teamwork, working together and scouting skills. I would have to agree.

I am hoping that we do this event again in 2024, I also hope that next year that we can bring all four of the troops sleds. I also hope that we have an overnight in the spring to allow us to work on these events again and to compete against the patrols in our troop.

I want our troop to do a better job in 2024.